Washington Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president

When I was working my way through school, I spent time working at a factory that produced plastic bags. We made all types of plastic bags for many different uses and the bags were shipped throughout the Midwest.

There was one thing that all the bags had to have in common no matter what type of bag they were or what they were being used for: They all had to have a strong and perfect seal.

The machine that I primarily worked on produced 300 bags per minute. The bar that sealed the bags had to be maintained and clean at all times. As the machine was producing the bags the most important part of my job was to randomly remove a bag from the line and blow it up and inspect the seal to make sure there were no leaks of air and to test the strength of the seal.

The supervisor would also wander from machine to machine in the factory and would pull a bag off the line to run the same test. At times entire boxes would be returned to the factory with weak seals and they would trace it to the person running the machine and have a nice meeting with them about quality control.

The Bible speaks of sealed bags as well.

In Job 14:16-17 it states, “For now You number my steps, But do not watch over my sin. My transgression is sealed up in a bag and You cover my iniquity.”

I love that visual. God seals up our transgression in a bag. I like to think that the bag that God uses has a perfect and strong seal that no man can break. He is the creator of that bag, the sealer of the bag and the quality control person of that bag and there is nothing that can change that. Praise God that He covers our iniquity and seals it up. He is our mediator in heaven that says I have got you covered.

In this Thanksgiving season as you gather with friends or family, please remember that the best thing to be thankful for is the saving grace of Jesus Christ and that He has you covered with His seal of approval.